When you started your practice did you think "I’ll just set
up my office, hang out a shingle and the patients will come.”?

It’s been my experience that for an integrative physician,
this strategy results in a schedule that is not as full as it could be and
income that is inconsistent.
That’s a shame because just a few regular activities can change all that
and create a steady flow of qualified patients and income.

Patients are the lifeblood of your practice. Apply the RARE System detailed below and
your patient flow will be abundant.
To do this, there are the 4
key areas where regular action is required. Together they create a firm foundation for a prosperous
practice:

Patient Retention/reactivation

Keeping your current patients engaged creates a stable
platform from which your practice can grow. It is much easier and less costly to sell additional services
to a current patient than to recruit a new patient. While consistent new patient acquisition systems are
definitely important, starting from scratch and running after new patients each
month is costly and time-consuming, not to mention nerve-wracking. That said, even patients who are open
to integrative medicine can tend to use it sporadically, i.e. only when they
are "broken” again. Therefore, the
challenge is to keep patients coming in regularly.

Developing solution-focused packages, ongoing wellness
programs, health education in the form of newsletters, blogs and events all encourage
patients to become part of your community. This keeps patients engaged and more inclined to come in
regularly. Loyalty programs and
special offers to current patients reinforce patient appreciation and make it
more likely that patients will stay with you.

Reactivating patients is an area of low hanging fruit that
is often overlooked. That’s too
bad, because patients who have invested in your services and had a positive
experience are more likely to come back.
A phone call or letter to a patient who hasn’t been in for a while might
be all that it takes. A special
offer for a follow-up or a service that helps them maintain their health may do
the trick. By following up you also send the message that you care about the
ongoing health of your patient. The
resulting positive regard is also more likely to trigger a referral.

New Patient Attraction

Whether you’ve been in practice for a long or short time a
steady flow of new patients is usually required to maintain a consistent
revenue stream. A website that
works as a recruiting tool is increasingly important. Many patients who are interested in integrative medicine tend
to do quite a bit of research. The
internet is often their tool of choice.
A web presence that connects with these clients is an essential element
in that attraction process.

Speaking engagements are another effective way to attract
new patients. Look for
opportunities where your ideal patients hang out. Natural grocers, yoga
and Pilates studios, women’s clubs and
business or country clubs can be effective locally. In-office
presentations can also work. The participants may not be ready for
your services right away, so it is important to find a way to stay in
their
thoughts so that you come to mind when they are ready, or have a friend
or
family member who will benefit from your services.

You can accomplish this by getting them to sign up for a
free report. To give them
incentive to sign up, choose a hot topic for your ideal patient - one that addresses
their most pressing health challenge or concern. Once they are on your list, provide some regular
communication of value such as a newsletter or blog with articles or health
tips. You can also use this
opportunity to make special offers that encourage subscribers to become a
patient. Your newsletter or blog is also an important part of your patient
retention strategy as it also helps keep current patients plugged in.

Print, online and Facebook advertising, postcards and snail
mail are also ways of attracting prospective patients. Once you have the free report
discussed above you can offer it on your website to capture the e-mail
addresses of those who visit your site via online and Facebook ads as well as
organic search.

Patient Referrals

By doing your transformational work with patients and
following some of the above steps you will naturally get referrals. A simple sign in your waiting room or
at check-out reminding patients that a referral is the highest form of
compliment reinforces this.

Referrals from other practitioners are another important
source of ongoing patients.
Cultivate relationships with referral partners by keeping in touch on a
regular basis. Show your
appreciation with a Thank You card.
Keep the referring practitioner up to date on your treatment. Best of all - reciprocate with your own
referral whenever possible.

Other aligned service providers can be a good source of
referrals. For example, we have
found that organic hair salons attract clients who are chemically sensitive.
These are my husband’s ideal patients.

Patient Experience

Since patients are often paying out of pocket for
integrative treatment, they expect a higher level of service than that received
in a typical medical office.

The feeling a patient gets from the first time they call
your office to their ongoing interaction with you and your staff creates their
experience. That experience can add to the health
benefits that they receive by working with you – or work against the goodwill
gained by your clinical skills. Positive
feelings reinforce their commitment to your practice and make them feel
comfortable referring friends, family and colleagues.

Training front desk staff on how to answer calls from
prospective and current patients is helpful here. Scripts of the most common questions work well and
make sure that your message is consistent. Also, have your reception staff
smile BEFORE picking up the phone. It will create the positive attitude that
can be the difference between sale and no sale.

Simple things that make a patient feel considered and cared
for are not costly and easy to implement.
For example, patients value done-for-you checklists and
instructions. In my husband’s
office we have found that patients find the instructions in many of the take-home
tests that he uses confusing. We
have created our own instruction sheets and are adding videos of these
instructions to our website. This
reduces patient anxiety and inconvenience. An added benefit is that is also minimizes staff time answering
questions about the tests.

Patient appreciation in particular enhances the positive
experience for patients. Sending a Thank You card for a referral or a phone
call after a first visit are easy and low cost ways to make a patient feel
appreciated. These are easily
implemented systems that your front desk can handle.

Look for other ways to show your patients appreciation. It was after I completed my own round
of chelation that I realized in my husband’s office that we were missing a huge
opportunity for patient acknowledgement.
After completing 20 IV’s I felt that I should receive something to commemorate this important
milestone. We now have a gift bag
with a card acknowledging the patient’s significant investment in their health.

Consistency is Key

Practice building can be likened to the work that you do in
getting a patient back to health – it is a marathon not a sprint. Aim for a minimum of one activity in
each of these key practice-building areas each month. If you do one a week, the tasks are very do-able. The
cumulative effects will be significant.

Many of these activities can and should be delegated. Your
highest value is in generating revenue by providing
services or converting leads into patients or additional services. Lead generating content, mailings,
event planning and phone calls can be done by others.

Putting it All
Together

As an example, one month’s activities might include:

Week 1 – (Retention)
Phone calls to past patients

Week 2 – (Attraction)
Speaking engagement

Week 3 – (Referral)
Lunch with a potential referral colleague

Week 4 – (Experience)
Staff training, patient appreciation program

Implement the RARE System regularly and you will soon find that your schedule is rarely open.

About Wendy

Wendy Bauerschmidt’s experience has
been earned by growing her husband’s successful functional medicine practice in
Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Along the way, she has encountered most of the
opportunities and pitfalls of marketing and managing the operations of a
growing integrative medical office.

Wendy’s passion is helping integrative
practitioners get more patients and manage their office and overhead so that they
can help more people and change the face of health care while
earning a healthy income. She specializes in creating outstanding patient
experiences, developing solution-focused packages that sell themselves and
training front desk staff to become a marketing asset.

Wendy holds a BA from the University of
Pennsylvania and an MBA from SDA Bocconi in Milan, Italy. Her corporate
career specializing in "high touch” servicing systems prepared her to create
high-performance, patient-focused environments that are key ingredients to
success in the new integrative medicine paradigm. Wendy invests heavily
in coaching and marketing mentorship to stay on the leading edge of what is
working in today’s competitive marketing environment and how it is best applied
to integrative medicine. Her
website is www.IntegrativePhysicianSuccess.com.